Thursday, December 26, 2013

Online Learning -- Teachers Speak

Rhode Island's Commissioner of Education, Deborah Gist, recently held a
digital learning summit in Providence with teachers and principals from
throughout Rhode Island. The topic of the summer concerned the increasing shift
in the public schools to elearning. The educators commented about the things
that excite them and the issues that concern them about online learning:

Benefits of Online Learning

Students can progress at their own rate

Online learning allows for increased opportunities for customized learning, allowing students to find the learning techniques that meet the strategies that work best for their individual styles

Students become more engaged and motivated by the available online tools and games

Online learning offers more opportunities for collaborative learning

eLearning makes it easier for students to continue a project at home after the school day has finished

Using PCs, tablets and smartphones students can learn any time and from any location

Students have more access to more information and more data when they use online tools

Online learning offers more opportunities for different types of feedback and evaluation

Parents can become involved in their child's education by monitoring their work

Concerns of Online Learning

Not all students have access to the same level of Internet and computer tools at home

Teachers will need to manage and schedule their curriculum more effectively

Some schools find it difficult to stay up to date with the new software and hardware needed to offer high quality online classes

Some teachers don't feel prepared to create digital lessons that will require acquiring knowledge of significant amounts of information about sofware and etools, for which they feel ill-prepared.

Working online may make it easier for students to cheat. Other security issues relating to elearning are also of concern to teachers.

About Me

About the author
Smadar Goldstein is an online educator based in Jerusalem, Israel, who has taught in over 20 schools in three continents, and feels the potential of online learning has just begun. Smadar is the Founder and Director of JETS, Judaic online and distance learning providers. She's passionate about merging the movements of yoga into online learning. Follow Smadar on Twitter @jetsisrael.